NEW YORK, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- A man held by Dutch authorities in the case of a missing woman in Aruba and subsequently released says press reports about his involvement are wrong.
Gary Giordano was released Tuesday night from an Aruba jail where he had been held for four months as the sole suspect in Robyn Gardner's disappearance.
In an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America," Giordano disputed much of the published information about her disappearance.
"There are hard questions, like 'he took her to remote location' on the island," he told GMA. "But we were 100 yards from a scuba diving store with tanks in back. It was not a 'remote location.' We were in view of other people at Baby Beach."
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When asked if he was drinking heavily the day of Gardner's disappearance, Giordano said they did not order drinks at the Rum Runner, the beachfront bar where they were last seen together.
Giordano explained why he got in touch with an insurance company just two days after Gardner's disappearance to ask about a $1.5 million travel insurance policy he had taken out on her.
"One more important piece is that there is a Holland handbook for travelers, and it says that when someone goes missing, the first thing you should do is call authorities, and the second is call your insurance. The government itself says that," Giordano said.
Giordano said Gardner's disappearance might be linked with what he called Aruba's two biggest sources of illegal income: cocaine and human trafficking.
"It's a half-hour boat ride to Venezuela, and it turns out that where we were, the beach, that's where they drop off illegals to swim to shore," Giordano said.
